If you find yourself getting around town using multiple Lyft rides every day, or you use the service to commute to and from work, then how do you like the idea of paying a regular monthly fee for all the rides you take?
Back in March, Lyft confirmed to The Verge that it’s currently conducting trials on variations of a subscription model to see which might work best for frequent riders. And now, two months later, the ridesharing company has told Digital Trends that the team is rolling out a new test, sending invitations to “select passengers to join a new wait-list for the next wave of plans.” Included in those plans is an All-Access option, which gives you $15 off 30 Lyft rides if you pay $200 upfront. So theoretically, that’s a savings of $250.
According to Lyft, Americans currently spend over $2 trillion annually on car ownership. Today, ridesharing services such as Lyft and Uber make up less than 0.5 percent of all vehicle miles traveled. But in a couple of decades, this proportion is expected to balloon to 80 percent. And Lyft wants to be sure that it’s at the forefront of that revolution.
“We are going to move the entire industry from one based on ownership, to one based on subscription,” Logan Green, Lyft CEO.
Previously, Lyft sent messages to potential trial riders about an “all-access pass” with “no surprises.” Under those tests, options included 30 rides costing anywhere between $200 and $300, and $400 for 60 rides. Any journey that cost up to $15 was included in the subscription.
Now, it looks like the All-Access Plan is taking on a more definitive shape and reaching more riders.
Lyft, like its main rival, Uber, is constantly looking for ways to improve and expand its service. The San Francisco-based service is investing heavily in driverless-car technology, partnering with a large number of companies over the last few years to help advance its plans. Some of its autonomous cars are already motoring along the streets of American cities, albeit as part of a trial service and with an engineer in the driver’s seat to ensure everything runs smoothly.
Aside from cars, the company is also experimenting with other modes of transport. In Baltimore, for example, it recently invested $270,000 in the city’s bike-sharing scheme as part of a three-year deal that puts its branding onto five of the city’s busiest bike-sharing stations that will also act as convenient pickup and drop-off points for Lyft riders. The company hopes the setup will help feed more riders into its car-based service as it seeks to build what the company calls a “multimodal transportation future.”
Updated on May 10: Lyft’s subscription option is growing and getting a wait-list.
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